Comments 26

Re: Poll: Is PS Portal the Biggest Surprise Hit of the PS5 Generation?

slabula

For everyone saying you can just remote play on another device, yes, that's true. With a smaller screen if you're using a phone or a bulky, unwieldy screen if you're using a tablet. And without the convenience of literally having a PS5 controller attached. The Deck is probably the best-of-both-worlds alternative, but even that has drawbacks like weight and battery life (and price if you don't already have one and don't care about portable PC games).

And for the people saying they prefer physical on Switch or Deck, sure, that has benefits too. But a lot of people are deep in the PS ecosystem and don't want to switch between them — especially if it's to play a game they already own on PS. Quickly hopping over to the Portal is far more convenient in a lot of cases.

I get it; it's not for everyone. Nobody NEEDS this device, but it does have some nice benefits for a lot of people, and considering its price and popularity, it's obviously worth it to them.

Re: New PS5 Firmware Update Available Now, Here's What It Does

slabula

@Balaam_ My guess is that they wanted the notes in one place (a web page) and just have everything link to the single source of truth. Easier to paste the link everywhere in case any of the notes change or whatever. As for automatically downloading and displaying the notes from that source, maybe it's a network thing. Or maybe it's just the first step in a more automated process. Sony does love to piecemeal their feature updates. Or maybe they chose a bad way to host the notes that makes it difficult to download/parse, and they figured most people don't look at the notes anyway, so just slap a link. Who knows.

Re: Silent Hill F Enjoyed an Outstanding PS5 Debut in Japan

slabula

@yohn777 I'm with you. The entire point is to use games within the series as a benchmark to measure its popularity. You literally COULDN'T do that with any other games. I suppose you could argue the SUCCESS of a game might be different now, considering development budget, market size, et cetera. But that's a different criterion.

Re: Poll: Are You Playing Hollow Knight: Silksong?

slabula

I appreciate all the variations of "no" for the question asking if I'm a fan. I have never had any interest in playing it personally, but I respect it as a very good and highly-regarded game of the genre. And most importantly, I'm just happy my gaming brethren are much excite this day! Hope y'all are having a blast. (My equivalent day will be Silent Hill f.)

Re: Metal Gear Solid Delta's Dismal PS5 Pro Support Could Use a Rethink

slabula

@Haruki_NLI I would argue it's cheap publishers rushing an unfinished, unoptimized product. UE5 is just a symptom because then they don't have to pay to maintain a custom engine. In reality, these games would be even worse (or not exist at all) if they were forced to build with their own engines. UE5 isn't inherently bad; it can be optimized just as well as any engine. Game companies are skimping on that and also choosing to prioritize pretty graphics over good performance.

Re: Stop Killing Games Fights to Stop Publishers from Revoking Access to Full-Price Products

slabula

Just to clarify a couple points...

1. This is not legislation. The movement is just a push to get lawmakers to discuss and address the issue and develop actual legislation around it. That's partly why it's a little vague and certainly does have holes that need further clarification.

2. It is acknowledged that some forms of games, e.g., MMOs, can't realistically be maintained in perpetuity. For those, ideally, the servers or server code could be handed off to others to continue servicing. But regardless, the real issue with that is they are selling a product with a service attached. Selling services is fine except that by law, services rendered and their duration must be defined. So sure, a company can't run online features forever, but if they sell you a game with them, they should be legally obligated to give you a minimum active service time. This seems less important for subscription-based games, but most games come with online features for a one-time cost.

Re: PowerWash Simulator 2 Gameplay Is Looking Spotless in New Trailer

slabula

@nhSnork I have no clue what the reality is, but I would guess it has something to do with the particulate system and keeping track of the different layers of dirt. That was already pretty taxing in the original, and I imagine they've made it more detailed in the sequel. Lots of data there that's probably difficult to process and cache optimally.

Re: Diablo 4's Berserk Crossover DLC Costs an Insane $150

slabula

@Cutmastavictory Pretty sure they have well-paid accountants who know exactly where to set the prices to wring out the maximum amount of money. Sadly, there are a lot of people with disposable income willing to waste it on cosmetics no matter the price.